Dishonored sold 460,000 copies in the US during October

Outsold by NBA 2K13, Resident Evil 6 and Pokemon Black Version 2.

Bethesda's Dishonored, a new IP launching in a marketplace dominated by sequels, sold an impressive 460,200 copies during its opening weeks on sale in the US, reports Game Informer.

According to NPD, Dishonored charted at No.4 in October, behind NBA 2K13 at No.1, Resident Evil 6 at No.2 and Pokemon Black Version 2 at No.3.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter charted at No.8, Skylanders Giants made 10th place and XCOM failed to make the elite ten, but did sell 114,000 copies. Publisher 2K has stated that the sci-fi strategy title was a commercial success, suggesting digital sales have boosted the sales figure substantially, and/or that oversees sales are more impressive.

Xbox 360 was once more the top-selling console of the month, shifting over 270,000 units. Sony and Nintendo haven't disclosed sales figures for the month.

9 Comments

User Comments

I see where you are coming from mate. Depends on the publisher and usually Bethesda does a good job of advertising, but then again, we do get games that do the opposite. RAGE for example got some sound reviews, yet the advertising went flat on its arse, even though it covered many gaming sites.

Another thing worth bringing up about X-COM and Dishonored. Not much twitter activity from what I have seen.

I think with Skyrim though, it's predecessor is a well known game that a lot of people like.

I imagine that advertising during football is really expensive and therefore is either only used for huge titles; Skyfall, Black Ops, Halo etc. Or titles which are poor, but their publishers want decent dales from; Warfighter, Amy (not that that was advertised on TV) etc.

Skyrim was advertised during a football match, which would easily into the same catergory as Dishonored going by your opinion (which I respect by the way).

Its good exposure to air an ad via a football game due to the amount of people watching and it would easily reach out to their target audience, as lets be honest here, all ages watch football - so they will easily reach out to their desired audience per say.

This is a) Why we can't have nice things, and b) Why I am really enjoying the apparent indie uprising.

When AAA-AA (add however many more is now deemed the popular by-description) development is dictated by crass mass-market casuals who only care to buy that which is blasted into their senses from advertising, with little to no thought or interest in the wider hobby as a whole, the whole thing is run into the ground. That is why I despise such people who partake of our hobby - there are so many of them, but only follow the prevailing yet rotting wind of PR spectacles. Some here argue that their money is instrumental in keeping or hobby going forward. Tosh, I say to them.

Thank goodness for Kickstarter allowing those who are truly passionate about making something unique to have an opportunity to do so, within the bloated landscape made corpulent on bland and tepid offerings that offer little to no development in the gaming scene (Resi 6 and Medal of Honour spring immediately to mind, but they are not the only abominations worthy of being called out).

I think you need to think about the audience that TV advertising, for example, would reach.

If I advertised XCOM during the middle of an England match, it's highly unlikely that a large proportion of that demographic would be interested in such a game. This can also be applied with Dishonour: 'Stealthily stab sneak your way through 8 levels as a Steampunk Assassin.' That audience would probably think, why would I want that? There's Assassin's Creed out soon!

Whereas DNF is much easier to advertise - 'Play the machofest that is DNF. Shoot guys, get sucked off by twins and be generally awesome!' It's a much easier sell.

I think another problem as well is that XCOM and Dishonoured are new IPs, whereas people are at least likely to have heard of DN.

Just to wrap up, I think if you're targetting a football fan for a game, then they are unlikely to look at reviews. For example, when Resi 6 was announced, Resi:OC was released not long after and that received high sales, probably off the back of the RE6 advertising.

I'll share my thoughts from twitter on here. Just goes and shows that reviews doesn't sell games making them "doesn't matter". It's all about the advertising and to be honest both X-COM and Dishonored wasn't very good < advertising wise, though X-COM is a brilliant game and I urge people to play it. Didn't see any TV ads during prime time viewing, as Duke Nukem Forever is a great example to use. Duke ad during half time of England game? Good tactic indeed for the millions watching it. Surprising Dishonored didn't get that treatment by bethesda during international or champions league games, then again just using it as a example way of good advertisement and good exposure.

DNF sold over a million copies yet slammed by the critics. Medal of Honor is another example to be honest, went straight to No 1 in the charts, yet not received that well by the critics even further backing up my thoughts.

I tend not to read that much reviews nowadays. I rather dive in and judge for myself, as that way you can find some hidden gems. Of course I do my research into the game via various of sites, videos etc to get a good overall picture.

Posted 11:44 on 09 November 2012

rbevanx

I'm amazed it sold that much considering how short it is with word getting around the net.
Would have thought people would be waiting to rent it as it's so short.

Resi 6 is already down to £24.99, Dishonored isn't that far behind at £29.99, which kinda brings home hard the importance of Day 0 to launches. I guess digital sales are a decent safety buffer for that, I think publishers are pushing for digital to be the number one delivery method for next generation, it'll be interesting to see if the console manufacturers cater for it effectively (ample storage etc).